Cops: Purse snatcher nabbed by bystander

Published 4:07 pm, Wednesday, January 23, 2013

EAST GREENBUSH — A bystander help corral a purse snatcher in a Hannaford parking lot Tuesday, police said.

The alleged robbery occurred at 4:30 p.m. at the Columbia Turnpike supermarket, where police say Zackery Davis-Todd opened a car's passenger door, sat down next to a woman in the driver's seat, grabbed her purse and tried to run away.

Police were called, and when they arrived at the scene, they said a man was holding Davis-Todd down on the pavement, the purse nearby. The handbag contained two credit cards and $31, police said.

While interviewing Davis-Todd about Tuesday's robbery, police said he confessed to trying to rob another woman on Dec. 15 in a nearly identical fashion in the same parking lot. In that case, Davis-Todd sat down in a the passenger seat of a woman's car and tried to take her cellphone, police said.

For his role in both cases, Davis-Todd, 18, of Muitzeskill Road, Castelon, was charged with felony counts of robbery and grand larceny, as well as petit larceny and unlawful imprisonment, both misdemeanors. He was arraigned in East Greenbush Town Court and sent to Rennselaer County jail after failing to post $20,000 bail.